Dear Instagram: Please Conduct Usability Testing First

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Is it just me or who has been avoiding to update their Instagram application just because the recent update gives us a massive change on the layout. Like the replacement of the notification button into the Instagram shopping button. Or the notification button now is beside the Direct Message button. I personally avoid updating my Instagram, and if I did accidentally update it, I’m going to reduce the frequency of using the application or even stop using it for a while. More than just a few people disliked the newest Instagram update; one user even wrote this on Twitter:

One of the many reasons that it got heavily backlashed is that maybe Instagram hasn’t done any Usability Testing in the first place. Or the test is not successful. So, what have we learned from this incident? We must conduct a Usability Testing.

“Hey Siri, define Usability Testing”

TLDR; testing our design to see the user’s reaction to it. Usability Testing is a process where we ask some users, maybe potential users, to see whether the design is easy enough to understand and use. This is done because of several things:

• To avoid features that fail because the user cannot use the design.
• We can know whether the user already understands the features or not, whether they could understand the message that we want to convey with our product.
• It will be easier to revise the design in the earlier stage since it will be much much harder to change it when already in the development process.

As I’ve mentioned above, usually a Usability Testing conduct in the earlier stage, when the project is still in the design phase. But since we don’t start the project from scratch (we only improve the application, so we’re not involved in the design process), we do Usability Testing on the existing application.

Conducting Usability Testing for BisaGo

When conducting Usability Testing, it boiled down to these four stages:

Preparation

Design Scenarios

During the Usability Testing, the user will be given several scenarios. Scenarios are critical since they are the core component for Usability Testing; they help you communicate with the users, asking what you want them to do during the test. Scenarios usually will covered the entire feauture of the application, so make sure to come up with several scenarios. Two aspects that I think is important when designing a scenario

• Short but enough information to perform the task, it must be simple, clear, and straightforward. Example: user is on the home page and wants to search for a place or location using the search bar. User types in the location, “Margo City” and presses the result.
• Use everyday language, not some fancy product language, since we want to communicate with a person, not a product or a robot. Example: instead of telling them to open a drawer from BisaGo, we can ask them to open up a sidebar.

2. Find Participants, five to be exact

When recruiting a participant, make sure that they are the potential user of the application. BisaGo application is intended for PWDs, but since it’s hard to ‘find’ them around us, our parents become the participants. And why we need only five only, because we don’t need to quantify anything (1 out of 5 participants thinks that…), qualitative-based. Also, based on this website, we already gain so many insights from five users.

Environment Set Up

Since the participants are our parents, and we’re in the same house, and we see them every day, the only thing that we need to do is help them install the application.

The ✨Actual✨ Usability Testing

1. Ask the user to think out loud.

Let them say what they want to say. Please don’t interrupt the user; let them be confused, so we know that our design is not intuitive enough. Do not answer any questions from the participants; instead, ask them back like “Menurut kamu itu apa?”. And when you do want to ask a question, make sure it’s an open-ended question.

2. Tell them to do several scenarios

Give them previously-designed scenarios one-by-one, make sure that the user understands the scenario. For example user has heard of BisaGo and registered his/her account using either Google or regular method. User now logs in using their existing account and navigate towards their profile page/dashboard.

3. Take notes

As the interviewer, make sure to write almost-everything that user said. From design-wise, flow, up to the struggle that they encounter.

Here’s the result of one scenario:

Post-Test Interview

After the actual Usability Testing, we can do a post-test interview. We can ask several questions such as the struggle they encounter when using the application, the design (whether they like it or what can be improved), and many more. Some of the questions that we ask:

• What do you think of the color and style shown in the application?
• What do you think of the content provided in the application?
• What do you think of the flow of the application?
• What do you think of the design of the application?

And the respond:

References:

• Guest Lecture —“Usability Testing 101” by Ivana Putri